3) Allow xinetd to listen to external calls:
open /etc/xinetd.conf
put a # in front of the line:
only_from = localhost

4) Change the xdm configuration so it listens to XDCMP request
open /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config with your favorite editor.
Look at the last line : "DisplayManager.requestPort :0"
Comment it out by inserting a ! at the beginning of the line

5) Configure kdm
if you use kdm, edit /etc/kde/kdm/kdmrc and enable XDMCP on port 177

6) Configure gdm
if you use gdm, start gdmconfig and go the tab "XDCMP"
Make sure 'Enable XDMCP' is checked

7) Specify who can have access to
edit /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess and uncomment the line " '* #any host can get a login window" by removing the single quote
You could also change it to 192.168.0.* for some security

This will open up a 800x600x24bit client. If you want another resolution or color-depth, just use the two last number shown in the services file.

Troubleshooting
I will edit this post to include some more troubleshooting tips, but i'm at my work right now.

If you feel all yummy in your tummy, please let me know.
____________________________________________________________________
EDIT: Tutorial was a few posts down... moved it to this post. Original post follows. -- pjp
____________________________________________________________________
Scroll down to see the tutorial

Anybody interested in a vncserver on linux that functions like a windows terminal server?

You can connect to it with your vnc client. Then you'll be presented with a gdm loginscreen, and you can work as normal. You don't have to start a vncserver daeomon before someone can connect to it. It will just listen for anyone to connect and then spawn a daemon. (is that the right word?)

I have a redhat guide in how to do that but i could change it to work with gentoo.

If you're interested please let me know.

Last edited by lines on Fri Aug 08, 2003 9:51 am; edited 5 times in total

Sounds interesting, but what happens if i connect to the server, log in and then just kill the connection? Will i have to re-login next time i connect or will i get my session back?

I'm quite sure you can do this with X and an xdm alone as well, a local LUG member told me this a few weeks ago. If you or someone else is interested in this, i might ask him and write a short "howto" for it!?

Greets!
Soebbi_________________"Even though Mac Users may be only 10% of market, always remember we are the top 10%"
- Douglas Adams

And soebbi, it is possible with X, but X is not a very good protocol to use over dialup. And my howto will be with tightvnc, which is almost just as thin as rdp.
Also when you kill your session you will start all over again. But maybe we can figure that out somehow.

hi lines,
i guess that would be a good thing. I started up the vncserver whenever needed, but having a slim daemon listening, and doing the job, would be preferrable.
lets see what u have...

greetz
kitano_________________->searched for a gentoo penguin ->alienated it with "find edges", "saturation", "photocopy" ->encoded quicktime from still ->played with aaxine ->screenshotted ->made it my avatar

Yes but with this tutorial you can make it to automatically spawn when someone wants to connect, just like a terminal server. Instead of manually starting some vncservers for some users. That would not be useful in a production environment.

a really nice tutorial, so i could not resist to try it out - but then found out that i have a problem here ..

as i use gdm here, i tried to do the setup with it, but without success. i end up at the grey screen (the standard X11 background) and the "X" cursor when i am connected via tightvnc viewer.

so i just changed the rc.conf to run xdm instead (never ran it on the machine in question before) and made the appropriate changes to the xdm-config file. but xdm does not want to work at all. instead it drops me the following two lines into /var/log/xdm.log:

so i've double checked the xdm-confg file, but everything looks good to me (yes, "DisplayManager.requestPort: 0" is uncommented with an "!" in front) and the Xaccess file just consists of an single asterisk.

then i've switched back to gdm and checked if the XDMCP udp port is open, but it is as netstat -anv and nmap -sU localhost report. i've crawled through the logs (/var/log and /var/lib/gdm) but havent found anything useful so far. and not even google could help me so far :(

any idea what the problems root could be?

EDIT: Ok, i've found the reason for this problem: When i built the machine i've added ipv6 Support to the Kernel and also into the make.conf file. Therefore all the packages that utilize the ipv6 flag have been compiled to use IPV6 Support. As i found out now i've forgot to enable IPV6 Support when i installed a new Kernel the last time (i didnt use the .config file back then and configured the kernel by make config instead) and xdm & kdm didnt like that while gdm just did not care :)_________________A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. ~ Alfred Renyi (*1921 - †1970)

Last edited by rojaro on Tue Aug 12, 2003 11:47 am; edited 1 time in total

If so, is there any extra setup needed to implement such functionality?

not at all, only what's written in the tutorial above ... of cousre you'll have to install XFree before :)_________________A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. ~ Alfred Renyi (*1921 - †1970)

Unlike Windows Terminal Services, games and videos also play like a charm, Office needs no extra configuring. Just wat runs locally will probably work remote. The only things I found that do not work are:

OpenGL games like Quake III, tuxracer etc.
Sound. (but that doesn't work with terminal server to)

I set something similar up using my main gentoo box as the server and a my work winblowzXP box as the client. I use another box running IPCop and dial up.

Now I could start up a fluxbox or whatever session and then use my linux apps etc to connect to the internet (automatically via the IPCop box) problem was that after I had finished and shut down the tight vnc client the internet connection would never go down . The only way the connection would go down was to disconnect via the IPCop admin screen or shut down my gentoo box.

NAS - Network Audio System would be a possible Solution, but that would require you to run an additional NAS Client..._________________A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems. ~ Alfred Renyi (*1921 - †1970)

# Use KEYMAP to specify the default console keymap. There is a complete tree
# of keymaps in /usr/share/keymaps to choose from. This setting is used by the
# /etc/init.d/keymaps script.

KEYMAP="us"

# The map to load for extended keyboards. Most users should leave this as is.

EXTENDED_KEYMAP="windowkeys"

# CONSOLEFONT specifies the default font that you'd like Linux to use on the
# console. You can find a good selection of fonts in /usr/share/consolefonts;
# you shouldn't specify the trailing ".psf.gz", just the font name below.
# To use the default console font, comment out the CONSOLEFONT setting below.
# This setting is used by the /etc/init.d/consolefont script (NOTE: if you do
# not want to use it, run "rc-update del consolefont" as root).

CONSOLEFONT="default8x16"

# CONSOLETRANSALTION is the charset map file to use. Leave commented to use
# the default one. Have a look in /usr/share/consoletrans for a selection of
# map files you can use.

#CONSOLETRANSLATION="8859-1_to_uni"

# Set CLOCK to "UTC" if your system clock is set to UTC (also known as
# Greenwich Mean Time). If your clock is set to the local time, then set CLOCK
# to "local". This setting is used by the /etc/init.d/clock script.

# XSESSION is a new variable to control what window manager to start
# default with X if run with xdm, startx or xinit. The default behavior
# is to look in /etc/X11/Sessions/ and run the script in matching the
# value that XSESSION is set to. The support scripts is smart enouth to
# look in all bin directories if it cant find a match in /etc/X11/Sessions/,
# so setting it to "enligtenment" can also work. This is basically used
# as a way for the system admin to configure a default system wide WM,
# allthough it will work if the user export XSESSION in his .bash_profile, etc.
#
# NOTE: 1) this behaviour is overridden when a ~/.xinitrc exists, and startx
# is called.
# 2) even if a ~/.xsession exist, if XSESSION can be resolved, it will
# be executed rather than ~/.xsession, else KDM breaks ...
#
# Defaults depending on what you install currently include:
#
# Gnome - will start gnome-session
# kde-<version> - will start startkde (ex: kde-3.0.2)
# Xsession - will start a terminal and a few other nice apps
XSESSION="enlightenment"